THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH

BIBLE CLASS STYLE LESSONS.

Romans 1:16-17 For I am
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation
for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
17 For in it the righteousness of
God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The
just shall live by faith.”

All articles are written
using the NKJV, unless
otherwise noted! All articles are written by David Hicks, unless specified
otherwise.

Witnesses to Me

To The End of the Earth!

- A Study
In Acts-

Chapter Seven –
Stephen’s Defense and Death

ACTS 7:1-16:

In our previous lesson, we closed the
sixth chapter
with false accusations made against Stephen. The first two accusations came
about when the Freedmen that had been disputing with him could not resist
the wisdom of the Spirit, so they induced men to make false accusation.

The first two accusations were that Stephen has spoken blasphemous words
against Moses and God.

After they brought him before the council; additional false witnesses were
brought before the council that added to the first two charges. These new
charges included Stephen speaking blasphemous words against the temple and
the Law.

As these charges were levied against Stephen, all who sat in the council
waiting for him to break down under the charges, instead witnessed his
countenance as calm, dignified, and confident.

In this chapter,
we will now be introduced to Stephen’s defense before the council concerning
these charges.

Text #1:

Acts 7:1
“Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?””

Breaking up
the obvious amazement of those assembled here concerning the countenance of
Stephen, the high priest demands a plea of innocence or guilt. It is now
that Stephen will settle into his defense. This defense will include,
uniquely, a synopsis of God’s dealings with the children of Israel’s
fathers, leading up to a summary indictment; whereby Stephen, like Peter and
John in chapter four will turn the accusations of the council back upon
them.

This brief
synopsis of the Old Testament history is just that, a synopsis (A brief
outline or general view, as of a subject or written work; an abstract or a
summary. – American Heritage Talking Dictionary).

Although a
good account of the history of the Old Testament, it has estimations and
generalities that were understood by the audience of Stephen.

Text #2:

Acts 7:2-8
– The Patriarchs

“And he
said, “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father
Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,
3
and said to him,
‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I
will show you.’
4
Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from
there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now
dwell.
5
And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set
his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give
it to him for a possession and to his descendants after him.
6But God
spoke in this way: that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and
that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred
years.
7‘And the nation
to whom they will be in bondage I willjudge,’said God, ‘and after that they
shall come out and serve Me in this place.’
8
Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham begot
Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob,
and Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs.

The
highlighted places are actual quotes from the Old Testament:
Genesis
12:1; Genesis 15:14; and
Exodus
3:12.

As the
history being illustrated by Stephen starts with Abraham, the most important
emphasis of this opening comes from two important points:

1. God promised to Abraham to give his descendants the
land God had called him to reside in (vs.
2-5)!

2. Before they would take possession of this land, the
descendants of Abraham would go down into Egypt and become servants
there (vs.
6-7).

Everything
in these two points is clearly highlighted, long before they would occur,
to Abraham in Genesis 15.The exquisite detail of the prophecy of God to Abraham in this
passage clearly states that his descendants will become servants and be
afflicted by this nation for four hundred years (Genesis
15:13). After that point God would judge this nation and bring
Abraham’s descendants out of that land (Genesis
15:14). In addition, as God would bring them out of Egypt and
judge that nation, He would likewise use the children of Israel to judge to
Canaanites and give to the descendants of Abraham, their land as a
possession.

As a sign
of this covenant with Abraham (vs.
8), God would also give him the command of circumcision (which
would be given in Genesis 17); long before the giving
of the Law of Moses.

In
verses
2-8, Stephen has produced the needle, thread, and laced them
together, so that now he can sew the completion of these events together.
This is an important mindset for the concluding portion of this first part
of the text. Since it was Abraham that has been made known all these things
before they occur, it is going to be spoken of in some of the details, as if
it were he that had performed them. In this, simply keep in mind that the
sewing starts with the promise to Abraham, and in
verse
17, concludes with the same understanding; thus starting with
him, and ending with him, everything in the middle is as if he were still
involved.

Text #3:

Acts 7:9-16 - The Patriarchs in Egypt
9
“And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was
with him
10
and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom in
the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt
and all his house.
11
Now a famine and great trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan,
and our fathers found no sustenance.
12
But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers
first.
13
And the second
time
Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to
the Pharaoh.
14
Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to
him,
seventy-five people.
15
So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers.
16
And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham
bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor,
the father
of Shechem.”

As the
history unfolds, and the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham is brought to
life, we see the family of Abraham (through Jacob), go down to Egypt. This
was also made known through the dreams of Joseph (Genesis
37:1-11); and the words of God to Jacob (Genesis
46:1-7).

As we see
this promise fulfilled in the descendants of Abraham coming to Egypt,
Stephen mentions that there are 75 who make the venture down into Egypt from
Canaan.

This has
been a source for uniformed attacks against the validity of scripture for
many years now.
They want to compare this statement of Stephen to the list recorded in
Genesis
46 (which has a total of 70 names).

The problem
in the comparison is that the list in
Genesis
46 is not a list a those who would come to Egypt from Canaan; but
simply a generational outline of the descendants of Jacob who would form the
nation while in Egypt (See: Genesis 46:3).

We know
this for some simple reasons:

First
– the list in Genesis 46 includes Er and Onan, who
were long dead before the family of Jacob came to Egypt.

Second
– the list includes ten sons of Benjamin. Joseph and Benjamin’s brother
Judah refers to Benjamin as a boy (lad – see:
Genesis
44:20). It would not be possible then that the ten children of
Benjamin would be included in those coming from Canaan to Egypt.

Third
– in the list of Genesis 46, there are also mentioned
male grandchildren, as well. Although we would have to concur that it could
have been that some of the older brothers may have had grandchildren, it is
not just the oldest, as there are grandchildren to Asher (46:17).

Fourth
– the house of Joseph, which included his two sons born to him in Egypt,
were already there; but part of the list.

All of this
to say that the list in Genesis 46 is not an inventory of
those who actually made the trip from Canaan to Egypt, but a list of the
generations of Jacob who would become the great nation promised to him in
Egypt
–
Genesis 46:3.

Stephen is
not referring to this generational list at all; he is simply quoting from
the historic traditional figure of those estimated to have gone down to
Egypt from Canaan. We may be assured that this incidental custom concerning
this number of people in Stephen’s dialogue is something completely
understood at this time (although unknown to you and me), due to the simple
understanding of the hostility of his audience towards him. If he had
included anything historically inaccurate, these listening would not have
waited for him to finish in order to stone him.

This brings
us to another point of contention, from those who have not paid attention to
the context. In verse 15 & 16, we have it stated
that Jacob died in Egypt and the other patriarchs, and that they were
carried back and buried in a tomb purchased by Abraham from the sons of
Hamor in Shechem.

First,
Jacob died in Egypt, but was carried back and buried where Abraham, Sarah,
Isaac, Rebekah, etc… were buried; which was a tomb that Abraham purchased
from the sons of Heth (in Hebron – Genesis 23), long before the death
of Joseph.

The tomb
purchased from the sons of Hamor, was purchased by Jacob, and the only one
of the fathers carried back to be buried in that tomb was Joseph (Joshua
24:32).

This is why
I prefaced this teaching as linear and summary in nature, starting with the
promise to Abraham and concluding with fulfilling the promise to him (vs.
17).

Even though
others would be involved in this history, it is as if Abraham himself were
doing these things because it was spoken to him first. The same rule is to
be used concerning Jacob; even though it was not him who came out of Egypt
with his descendants, it was as if he did because those who did were his
descendants. Once again, had not his audience understood this simple thread
of linear history (that this was not a misstep, but a summarization), they
would have used this as a reason to stone Stephen long before the
conclusion.

All this to
say that this linear thread is establishing that God wrought all this to be;
first in prophecy, then in fulfillment. This is establishing in Stephen’s
testimony the first and most important fact, everything to come in this
defense has been brought about by God.